Mixology was a skill Bellamy was used to being tested on. No bar worth their salt let a barkeep work their counter with a verbal claim and a piece of paper. He’d anticipated their request to concoct the most popular drinks the bar served, but not the drinks of all the regulars, three of which he’d needed to be taught. No fear of alcohol abuse though. There was a charter meeting taking place in the back room, and the graceful Teddy, with the dancer-like sway in his step, had been conveying them down the hall all afternoon.

“I’m not going to say you’re hired, yet,” Katrina informed him. “I’ll save that for the end of the night. If you handle things the way I think you will, you’ll be a huge hit.”

“What time is setup?”

“Seven. Make sure you have comfortable shoes. I swear I don’t know what gets into some people. You do not come to work a job in six-inch hooker heels you can barely wobble on and think you’re going to be able to perform your duties.”

“Dare I ask?” Bellamy replied.

She waved her hand in the air between them and made a tisking sound. “Just some stripper boy who thought he could work a bar better than a pole, which, judging from how long he lasted there, wasn’t long at all.”

“Ouch.”

“Damn near faceplanted in the sink just trying to turn around.”

Snickering, Bellamy had to admit, whoever that had been sounded like a disaster. One he’d be certain to thank in the astronomically insane chance they ever met. It had kept the job on the table for Bellamy to come along and take firmly in hand. Still, it was good to know there was a strip club he could work at if something should go awry.

Like the smart-mouthed, confused little brat striding through the door in front of a mountain of a man whose mustache was lifted in a way that suggested he smelled something foul.

“So, how’d the interview go?” Katrina asked as soon as she laid eyes on them. The moment Cody laid eyes on Bellamy went a bit differently, with Cody’s emerald eyes widening a fraction and a look that might have been hurt or embarrassment, darkening them.

“I start Wednesday. Wreck’s sister is gonna train me.”

“Well then you had best pay attention and not mess this up,” Katrina said. “Now did you thank Wreck for going out of his way to fix your fuck up?”

“Yeah, but he neglected to warn me that the home was two miles from here.”

“Then I guess you’ll get plenty of exercise, or empty your head of antiquated ideas, either way, it’s on you to figure it out.”

Groaning, Cody bounced his head off the bar a couple of times. “Can I get a Charred n’ Stormy please?”

“As long as you have cash to pay for it,” Katrina said. “Bellamy, this is my youngest son, Cody, who is not to comp any drinks or be allowed a tab. He’s recently proven that his money management skills are shit, and therefore, I don’t need him drinking up half my bar unless he’s buying every drop.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bellamy replied, punctuating it with a long whistle “Sounds to me like someone’s stepped in it.”

“Would have been cleaner. This little fucker got down on the floor and wriggled around in it. Gonna take a little while to get the stink off, that’s for sure.”

“Thanks, mom, that’s really helpful,” Cody snapped, spinning around on the stool.

He wasn’t wearing his kutte, but then, from all Bellamy had overhead the night before, the loss of his bike would have been only one of the stipulations he’d faced.

“Nice to meet you, Bellamy.”

So that’s how it was gonna be then, okay, Bellamy would let him pretend they’d never met, for now, because he looked ashamed enough, shoving away from the stool and stalking back out the door.

“Whiskey sour, and make it a double,” the mountain who’d followed Cody through the door grumbled as he bellied up to the bar. The voice was the same one that had come yelling through Cody’s phone the night before. Didn’t take much to figure out that this was Wreck.

“Now he drinks free,” Katrina explained. “On account of all the bullshit, he’s had to put up with since my husband appointed him to watch after Cody and try to straighten him out.”

So where was he last night, Bellamy wondered, not that he’d say it out loud? He needed to land the job first and figure out the dynamic of the place. That Wreck had been assigned to Cody was an interesting tidbit, explained the angry, resentful look on his face when his mother had suggested he thank the man, too.

“Yes, ma’am,” was all he said while making Wreck’s drink.

Katrina pulled a stool over and plopped herself on it. Short and curvy, with long, cascading black hair in fat spiral curls. Her nails were short, rounded, and well-manicured, painted in black with some sparkly green speckles on top. Black jeans and a hugely oversized black t-shirt depicting a South Dakota run several years back rounded out her look. No way that t-shirt was hers, but it looked comfortable as hell, like the soft boots that encased her dainty feet. No doubt about it, she’d come to work, the same as she expected her employees to. The mark of a good boss. He could learn to like it here.

“So how did the interview really go?” Katrina asked Wreck.

“Warned him before he walked in that was my sister and he’d better watch his mouth, but in hindsight, it wasn’t needed. You raised him up right, Kat, despite what he’s gotten into lately. Think I’m getting a handle on some of what’s got him spun out right now, but it’s gonna be up to him to work out how to fix it.”

“Do you really think he can handle working in the kitchen, I mean, I taught him the basics but…?” Katrina drummed her fingertips on the counter. “I just worry about him and it’s not just that he’s the baby. Of all my spawn, that’s the one I’ve never been able to figure out. Somedays he’s this bright ball of sunshine, stalking through here, hugging me, cracking jokes, others he’d surly and borderline mean. Though never disrespectful, which I’m grateful for because I’m not sure I’d be able to fight down the urge to smack him across the face if he said the wrong shit to me.”

“Pretty sure he knows that, too,” Wreck murmured, flashing her a bit of a smile. “After what I saw you do to Finley the other night, I wouldn’t want you clocking me either.”

“It’s all fun and games until someone decides to get a wild hare and pinch what ain’t there’s to put their fingers on. No one touches Teddy!”